Colombian Breakfast Chaï

Mariage Frères Advent 2021 – Day 9

This has a similar vibe to Alexandra David-Néel – an “almost chai” that’s too delicate to handle milk. This has an earthy profile that’s a huge divergent from the bright citrus and berry fruit teas of the last 8 days! However, while I like the spice level (clove dominant), coffee teas are never going to be my favourite.

Advent Day 9

What the….? I was so confused by this tea! It says chai, so I expected chai spices and it says breakfast, so I thought hearty chai. Nope. If this was a chai I’d have been disappointed. Then I saw that I had this on my wishlist and was wondering why. Looks like it was in last year’s advent (they have a million teas and this is just the third year they have done an advent… you’d think they wouldn’t have repeats this soon) and RoswellStrange had left tasting notes about it being a spiced coffee tea. My interest is peaked again. It’s definitely hardy! I had been getting bored with all the ethereal light and fluffy teas in this advent and then MF answers my boredom with something heavy. I do get some spices. It reminds me of a light version of a strong cinnamon tea a local brunch place is known for. It has the depth of coffee, but not in the overpowering way coffee has. It’s hard for me to taste the spices on the sip, but the end and finish let them out more. As it cools the spices come out more and light coffee is more discernable. I’m tempted to add cream and sugar like I’d have in a chai or coffee, but I’m also afraid I’ll ruin this. My intuition was right. I hope I never defile a cup of this like that again. At this point I probably wouldn’t buy this tea, but I’d happily have another cup of it.

Advent Day 9

Absolutely did not realize there was coffee in this blend. Tasted like a pretty average chai. Pretty mild/not overly spicy. Probably would’ve been better with cream and sugar.

Adventaggedon Day 20 – Tea 4/6

This was a very unexpected tea from MF today, but I thought it was okay. I’m not sure if I’ve ever had a Chai from MF before – and for it to not just be a boring old traditional Chai profile but a Coffee Chai was really interesting to me! I feel like I’ve seen a real emergence of spiced coffee inspired tea blends this year, and I’m not sure where that came from but it’s been fascinating to watch get a bit more traction.

I know some tea drinkers also drink coffee, but I am not one of those people – in general I just don’t tend to enjoy the flavour very much. That’s pretty much true here, but I do think it’s a really well done/balanced version of this profile even if it wasn’t my cuppa. It’s more of a coffee flavour than a spiced one, and it’s a pretty dark/roasted coffee note without really any sweetness to it: bold, thick and sophisticated with a slight bitter edge. My impression was that it would be pleasant with a spot of milk, but I also really appreciated the heavy roast notes without reliance on sweetness. The spice creeps up after the initial hit of coffee – mild, and warming. Sort of a “Dirty Chai” vibe, but again with way more weight put towards the coffee notes.

It was refreshingly different from anything else that MF has included in the advent, and if you were a fan of a roastier coffee I think you would REALLY enjoy this one!

Advent Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/CJCZpVTAt6i/